Today is Earth Day, and it has been going since 1970, when an estimated 20 million Americans took to the streets to demand environmental reform. One day, one idea, and it eventually became the largest civic observance on the planet with over a billion people participating annually. That is not nothing. The question is what you do with it beyond scrolling past the green-tinted social media posts.
Here are five ways to actually mark the day.
Get outside and clean something up. The Great Global CleanUp is one of the flagship Earth Day programs and it is exactly what it sounds like. Find a local beach, trail, park, or street and spend an hour picking up litter. It is low effort, immediately visible, and genuinely useful. Check earthday.org for organized cleanups near you.
Plant something. Trees, a container garden on your balcony, herbs on your windowsill. Earth Day 2011 saw over 1.1 million trees planted across 17 of the world’s most heavily deforested countries. You do not need to match that number. One plant in one pot still counts.
Cut your single-use plastic for the day, then keep going. Earth Day 2018 was entirely focused on plastic pollution, and the awareness it generated helped push 60 countries toward single-use plastic legislation. Bring a reusable bag, skip the disposable cup, say no to the straw. Small friction, real impact over time.
Teach someone something. Earth Day started as a teach-in, and that spirit is worth keeping alive. Share an article, watch a documentary with your kids, or just have a conversation with someone about a local environmental issue you actually care about. The original organizers believed that education was the foundation for everything else. They were right.
Vote like it matters, because it does. Environmental Action, the group that grew directly out of the first Earth Day, ran a campaign in 1970 called the Dirty Dozen targeting the worst environmental offenders in Congress. Seven of the twelve were defeated. Knowing where your local candidates stand on environmental issues and showing up at the ballot box is still one of the most direct things any individual can do.